20 Leadership Lessons from 2020
The following are leadership lessons I learned or already knew and were reaffirmed during 2020.
Unity is found in doing what Jesus tells us to do, not in doing what everyone else is doing:
Our church unity is found in doing exactly what Jesus has told us to do. We don’t need to do what other churches are doing. We simply need to be faithful to do what Jesus has asked us to do. This was learned while navigating the mask issue.
Don’t underestimate the impact of the nominally involved:
These are the people who give sometimes, attend sometimes, serve sometimes but aren’t all in. And while I certainly believe Jesus wants us to be all in with his mission the loss of these folks has had a negative impact on the church. Their participation and giving does in fact add up. I used to see this group of people as moochers. God has changed my heart. I need to see them as he sees them…valuable.
It’s hard to do humble mundane tasks as your influence gets bigger.
This was something the Lord challenged me to in one of my doctoral classes as we read “Leading with Character and Competence.” Leaders need to pursue humility. One of the best ways to do this is to perform mundane tasks. As your organization and your influence becomes larger, people tend to not want you to do mundane tasks, they even work to prevent you from this work. I have to let people do their work but I also have to work hard to engage in mundane tasks.
Lots of decisions gives the people whiplash.
Early during COVID we made multiple plans for gatherings and reopening but governmental officials kept changing the rules so we had to keep adjusting. This gave the church whiplash. So in July I made two decisions to stop the whiplash: “no more dates” and “rebuilding over reopening.”
Clarity is king:
When sharing vision remember that clarity beats creativity every single time.
When you have an urgent matter in a department address the entire system of that department not just the urgent matter:
Often the matter at hand is simply a symptom of a greater issue. Once you take a look at the system and/or department the whole problem comes into view. And once you can clearly understand the problem then solutions are easy.
Don’t hire people; select people.
I made this hiring move a couple years ago and doing so has been the single greatest factor in culture building. Our staff culture has been fantastic this year. Hiring people leads to employees. Selecting people leads to a team.
Sometimes leadership is chess and sometimes it’s ping pong:
This idea is simply about recognizing what season you are in. If you are in a chess season, then you can take your time to make a decision. During chess season you can gather data, have meetings, fast and pray, etc… But during ping pong season you have no time to deliberate, you have to respond. A wise leader knows which season they are in. During Covid-19 we went from chess season to ping pong season over night. All of a sudden leaders had to make decisions rapidly without time to convene with boards or do due diligence. The key being successful in ping pong season is that you are prepared for it mentally and intellectually and you have the trust of your organization.
Generosity breeds Generosity:
Generosity to our community honors God and inspires our people to give more enthusiastically. We noticed that every time we did something generously for our community the church responded generously.
Planned Abandonment:
Leaders need to intentionally plan to abandon some ideas. I’ll put it this way, things make sense until they no longer make sense. :) All programs, ideas, initiatives have an expiration date. The wise leader plans to abandon things before they become a hindrance. A post-COVID church will not look like a pre-COVID church. We should be planning what things we should abandon in order to embrace the future.
Have the lowest heartrate in the room:
When crisis comes stay calm.
Prepare for a crisis before it hits:
Most days don’t include a crisis. But those days do come. The best way to be ready for them is to take advantage of all the other days by developing your heart and especially your mind. A leader should be aggressively learning and growing during the routine days of ministry so when a crisis hit’s you are ready for it. You can’t wait for a financial crisis to learn about finances. You can’t wait for a crisis with a leader in your church to learn what the bible says to do about it. Your days should be filled with reading, podcasts and conversations with smart people. Be relentless about this.
Cash on hand is a must:
I’ve had times when we’ve had lots of cash on hand and times when we have had next to none. I don’t have a formula for this but experience tells me having a minimum of one month’s cash on hand is a good goal. This enables you to weather crisis, low attendance Sundays, stolen AC Units (we had 4 this year), etc… More than that is obviously better but we saw our giving remain strong this year during COVID. I think that’s somewhat of an indicator that we may have a Sunday here or there when we take a hit but unlikely for a prolonged season.
Leading out of fear makes you a false prophet:
When you become a leader you take on a variety of responsibilities and you lose certain rights. You lose the right to be overly emotional, you lose the right to get sick on Sunday’s (pastors) and you lose the right to lead out of fear. Fear makes us false prophets. False prophets are those who predict the future wrongly. Fearful leaders lead out of the worst case scenario. And these scenarios almost never come true (remember Y2K and the Mayan Calendar?). That makes you a false prophet. If you’ve ever freaked out about something that never happened, you know exactly what I mean. Leading this way will erode your trust like nothing else.
In every season frame your leadership:
You need to frame your leadership so that both you and the people you lead know how you are leading during the time. Letting your staff know what mode you are allows them to participate in the progress.
Leaders need to know their just cause:
I got this phrase from Simon Sinek. Your just cause is your highest purpose. Mine is “depopulating hell.” If you don’t know what your purpose is you will have trouble making progress.
Responsibilities are more important than rights:
I learned this years ago and was reminded of it again from the presidential election, facemasks and COVID. We all have rights but real freedom is found in laying them down and serving others…just like Jesus.
You must give your people a reason WHY they should physically attend church
It’s so much easier to stay home and watch online. And everyone now knows that great content from great preachers can easily be found online. If we want people to physically attend in the future we must give them a reason WHY. Why should someone getup early, get dressed up, fight the kids/teens to get ready? It won’t be for the content. It will be for the community. Sunday mornings need to be filled with the things people can’t get at home: community, communion, prayer, singing…
Leaders must have some answers but more importantly they must ask the right questions:
Asking the right questions is harder than it sounds. But mastering this task is how you empower others to lead.
The leader experiences the MOSTS:
The leader has the most difficult and most rewarding job in the organization. Leadership is simultaneously the most lonely and the most social in the organization.
Leadership is taking responsibility to make other’s lives better not rewarding mine:
Being a successful leader isn’t about being rewarded, it’s about taking on greater responsibility. I was reminded of that multiple times this year, especially when I had to lay off 20+ staff members and promised I’d work to make sure they got paid and would all be hired back. They did and they were.
Vision attracts criticism:
Not everyone will be happy with your plans. However, if your vision is from the Lord and you share it clearly, almost everyone will be excited to follow. People want to follow a leader with a plan.
Wisdom is found in three ways
What you read (or listen to)
Who you spend time with
Experiences
Leaders have hard conversations
It’s not that a leader wants conflict but they see and understand the value in having hard conversations quickly before trouble arises. It’s a loving thing to have a hard conversation with someone rather than avoiding it. Like I wrote in my article about my principles: Hard words make soft people.
